Ok, so I puffed the rye and wheat and honey roasted them. The results were, um, okay.
I puff the grain by heating about 2 cms of oil in pot and throwing them in an stirring a bit an them pouring them through a strainer, catching the oil in another pots. Results were crunchy puffy. The outer edge cooked before much puffing. It created a softer crunchy grain, rather than puffy-puffy like cereal.
The honey roasting just involved coating them with oil and a bit of honey and roasting them. The results were similar to the puffing - but harder/firmer.
I tried to risotto rye. It didn't seem to be working. I probably didn't have enough to do it properly. I kind of got bored half way through and just boiled it. The cooked rye was firm and fleshy. I tried putting the cooked rye into the oven to roast it. Results pending...
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Problem 1: Prairie Nuts
Objective: To find a local nut substitute to go in a 100 Mile Diet beet salad for my mom's dinner.
Background: My mom has been part of a gourmet dinner club, for, like, 35 years. Every year each couple hosts and cooks a 'gourmet' dinner. Does anyone say 'gourmet' anymore? I suppose if it started now, it would be called the 'foodie' dinner or something.
Anyway, this year her theme is 100 Mile dinner. We had talked about how there are lots of colourful local beets available right now. She wants to do a variation on the classic beets-blue/goat cheese/walnut combo. The are some very good local cheeses available but what about nuts?
Nuts, according to Wikipedia, are large oily seeds. I don't know that any of the nuts we commonly think of can be grown here, and I am not sure if they are - I don't think so. But what about the seeds that are commonly found within 100 miles - gain seeds like oat, wheat, and rye.
In salads, nuts add a crunchy, meaty (as in, like, satisfying) texture, and a depth of flavour. I want to try to see if I can create some of those qualities with local grains. I am going to toast 'em, roast em, poof them, sesame snackify them, cluster them, season them, to see if they can be a tasty addition to our salad.
Background: My mom has been part of a gourmet dinner club, for, like, 35 years. Every year each couple hosts and cooks a 'gourmet' dinner. Does anyone say 'gourmet' anymore? I suppose if it started now, it would be called the 'foodie' dinner or something.
Anyway, this year her theme is 100 Mile dinner. We had talked about how there are lots of colourful local beets available right now. She wants to do a variation on the classic beets-blue/goat cheese/walnut combo. The are some very good local cheeses available but what about nuts?
Nuts, according to Wikipedia, are large oily seeds. I don't know that any of the nuts we commonly think of can be grown here, and I am not sure if they are - I don't think so. But what about the seeds that are commonly found within 100 miles - gain seeds like oat, wheat, and rye.
In salads, nuts add a crunchy, meaty (as in, like, satisfying) texture, and a depth of flavour. I want to try to see if I can create some of those qualities with local grains. I am going to toast 'em, roast em, poof them, sesame snackify them, cluster them, season them, to see if they can be a tasty addition to our salad.
Openning Blog
So I am creating this blog as a record of my cooking experiments. My objective is to actually try every crazy, stupid, idea that pops into my head on my own terms, just for me. All those people that say 'that's dumb' or 'that will never work' or 'why' can shove it. This is not on their time or their dollar. I am going to do it on my own.
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